Uniform summary for the state of Mississippi
Following the secession of Mississippi on 9 January, 1861, the State Convention established a state military force called the Army of Mississippi, and a Military Board consisting of Gov. John. J. Pettus and five generals which, sometime during March 1861, published 'Orders' for the organization and maintenance of this force. Included within these orders were detailed uniform regulations, which were subsequently reprinted as part of the 'Southern Military Manual', published in both Jackson and New Orleans, which contained the collected 'military ordinances' of Mississippi and Louisiana.
The uniform for the Army of Mississippi was prescribed in detail. For full dress, grey frock coats were to be of U. S. regulation cut, although all doublebreasted coats, for generals as well as field officers, bore two rows of seven buttons. Generals' cuffs were plain, but their collars were of black velvet, with an embroidered 3/4 inch gilt star each side for the Major-General, and silver stars for Brigadiers. Field officers wore black cloth collars minus the star, and black cuffs, all edged with 1/2 inch gold lace. Staff officers' coats were not braided. Company officers had collars and cuffs of branch service colour, and horizontal silk braid of the same colour running across from their nine buttons, the top braids being five inches in length, and the bottom two. Enlisted mens' coats were similar, but with worsted braid. Branch service colour was to be crimson for infantry and riflemen, yellow for cavalry, and orange for artillery.
Trousers were also grey, with black cord stripes for generals, and one inch cloth stripes for the rest, black for field officers, and of branch service colour for the remainder. Hats were of black felt, broad brimmed and 'looped up on three sides,' with cord, tassel and plume for parade. The plume was to be 'long flowing' for generals, field and staff officers, and 'short and standing' for all other ranks. Plume colours were white for Major General, red tipped white for Brigadier-General, crimson for regimental field and staff, green for the Medical Corps, yellow for the Adjutant General's Corps, blue for the Quartermaster General's department, and blue tipped with red for the Ordnance Corps. Captains, lieutenants and enlisted men wore plumes of the colour of the 'facings of their dress.' Yellow metal regimental numbers were to be worn below the plume socket for Regimental Field and Staff officers. These were probably substituted for company letters for Captain and all other ranks. Cords and tassels were to be gold for all officers, and worsted facing colour for other ranks.
Officers' rank was to be indicated by a system of dark blue shoulder straps with gold borders. Like their full dress epaulettes, these bore a rank system consisting of a gold star for Major General, silver star for Brigadier General, gold crescent for Colonel, gold leaf for Lieutenant Colonel, silver leaf for major, two gold bars for Captain, one for First Lieutenant, and none for Second and Third lieutenants. Non-commissioned officers' chevrons were basically as per U.S. regulations, in facing colours, of silk for Sergeant-Major, Quartermaster Sergeant, and Ordnance Sergeant; of worsted for 1st Sergeant and below.
For fatigue, enlisted men were to wear flannel shirts with a white star on each side of the collar. Those for infantry and riflemen were to be red, grey for artillery, and blue for cavalry.
After these orders were issued, the Military Board apparently had second thoughts about the unusual, and possibly confusing, branch service colours prescribed. On 14 March, 1861, the New Orleans Daily Delta reported: 'Mississippi regulation uniform (grey) changed by the Military Board to Infantry and Light Infantry ... Green, Artillery ... Red, Cavalry ... Yellow or Orange.'
However, in a final version of the regulations, these colours were changed yet again. This was included as part of the collected 'military ordinances' of Mississippi in the 'Southern Military Manual', a handbook for officers published simultaneously in Mississippi and Louisiana, probably in May 1861. Here the facing colours were given as blue for infantry and riflemen, orange for cavalry, and red for artillery, while fatigue shirts were now grey for infantry, blue for cavalry, and red for artillery.
Predominantly an agricultural state with very few facilities to process cloth, Mississippi was virtually destitute of all supplies by February 1861. The government slowly realised that in order to provide clothing for their troops they would have to take stringent action. By the summer of 1861, it virtually monopolised the state's textile industry, and had directed that all penitentiary labour be, as far as possible, employed in producing supplies for the soldiers of Mississippi. The prison workshops had been established in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Jackson in 1849. By 1860, this facility consisted of 2,304 spindles, 24 cotton-carding machines, 76 looms for weaving osnaburgs, 4 mills for producing cotton twills, and a full complement of machinery for making woollen linseys and cotton batting. When Mississippi belatedly began to arm after secession, the entire penitentiary facilities were diverted to the manufacture of military goods. The extent of its services to the state's war effort can be gauged from the fact that its output during the last twelve months of its existence (July 1862 to July 1863) was reckoned at $172,608. It is difficult to ascertain exactly what type of uniforms these establishments produced for the men who volunteered for service in mid-1861.
Mississippi regiments in Virginia were very poorly supplied. According to the diary of Robert A. Moore, a member of the Confederate Guards, camped near Leesburg, Virginia, during August 1861, the 17th Mississippi Infantry purchased 'for the Reg. goods for a uniform' which was taken 'back to the homes of the different companies' to be made up. Received by the end of October, these uniforms consisted of grey ten-button shell jackets with a single small button oneither side of a black trimmed collar. Cuffs were decorated with black cord forming a distinctive single loop. The front and bottom jacket edges were also trimmed with black cord. Some jackets had a single pocket on the right breast. Pants were also grey with two-inch wide seam stripes. Though widespread, this shortage was not general. One survivor of the 2nd Mississippi Infantry, often reported as one of the worst dressed regiments, recalled 1861 as a time of plenty. Much of this clothing was paid for and supplied by 'volunteer aid societies' of Mississippi.
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